In just the past few days there have been physical bus stop ads and posters, a new trailer that reportedly played before some barbie movie screenings (no evidence of this one though), and paying bigger streamers to play with little promotional bits where a guy hacks into their stream. There were also ships added to different maps in game a few weeks ago as a teaser.
Edit: I forgot a fairly big one in that they showed the trailer for the season at the xbox showcase last month
https://twitter.com/OWCavalry/status/1683950432849391623
https://twitter.com/OWCavalry/status/1683639740141109248
Seems like they’re really banking a lot on this invasion update.
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It does feel like this is sort of their attempt at a soft re-launch. There’s an “all or nothing” feel to it. Game’s player retention rate probably isn’t high and they need those numbers high because committed, consistent players are the ones most likely to invest real money into the game.
The problem is, with all the unique, fun things they took out of the game, the lack of any true rewards for your time investment, a progression system that will just be numbers on a screen and nothing to really work toward, an unused experimental card that could be used weekly to test/iterate on ideas/changes, and a cosmetic shop that is way too expensive for skins that only one hero can wear, the OW team still seem absolutely disconnected from what the community wants and seem totally ignorant as to what would drive up player engagement.
Until they understand that. Until they rework their entire philosophy, those player retention numbers won’t improve.
The game still has potential, but they need to act SOON if they want any chance at a resurgence/rebirth. The longer they wait, the less people will care. This is the breaking point. It’s gotta only get better from here, otherwise I don’t see the game surviving another year.
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I think that’s… a good symptom. I’ve always found too much emphasis on OWL rather than Overwatch as a game, and this kind of marketing was only seen in the OW1 era from its debut … until more or less 2018, the year of debut of the Retribution archives.
the only problem is that there isn’t yet a real revolution to justify that “2” in the title other than a shop rework. people will always be angry about this if they don’t revolutionize these aspects. especially the lack of a clan system in a teamgame, it’s crazy that it doesn’t exist after 7 years!
Notice how those ads all say XBOX on them.
Microsoft will complete the acquisition by the time Q3 earnings come out in October, which will show what impact Invasion and the Steam release have on the game as far as revenue and player population goes. But feedback from critics and players (and forums) will be huge by that time.
What happens after October is going to be huge. Either the game is restored, or Microsoft will have to make some really big decisions on what to do with it.
By 2024, this game will certainly be a completely different beast. Will any of us be sticking around? I don’t even have it installed anymore.
all a complete waste of money. no game thrives in a rigged environment.
They are clearly putting the money/resources they should have used to release the full PvE version of the game … which will make OW2 players hate them for it.
I just have to say the classic: "Bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for them."
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I know we normally talk about feet or how you’re Canadian (
), but that was a really great description of what’s wrong with the state of the game.
They have a great hand of cards to play with, but it’s like they keep trying to sabotage their own success for the chance to make some quick cash or temporary players.
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I have a feeling Season 6 will be the last Season with any real content we will ever see until next year anniversary Season.
They are going all in on marketing for a last hoorah!
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what the hacking streamer mean ? there is no talon story mission on invasion pack that mean sombra won’t appeared ( another false marketing ) also sombra always hack with purple they can’t get that even right
they didn’t even know how to market season 6 lol
if they smart they should just play a direct comms from tracer or winston requesting player’s help on upcoming invasion just a simple comms hud that already existed since uprising lol they didn’t even know they can do that
The aggressive marketing will just make the actual expansion feel worse (cough Lightfall cough)